An interesting discussion of the procedures for academic travel and its reimbursement. It’s US focused, but the issue is much wider. I seem to be continually owed money by three or more different universities – not always for travel to conferences or lectures, but also for service roles like travelling to examine a PhD or attend a meeting. When you’re in an established position this is usually just a minor inconvenience, but for those at the start of career, being owed these amounts of money can be much more significant.

There are surely things that could be done to improve this – more booking of tickets by the host university, or at least having the reimbursement ready to go immediately after the event, rather than waiting for the event to begin the long, slow process. Some places are good at this, so it’s clearly not impossible.